What I love...

I love fall. It's my favorite season. I haven't seen much fall, yet. The mornings are starting to get slightly cooler, but it's still 102 today. There are no trees that change colors, no new school clothes, so I've created my own fall. I bought pumpkins, ate apples, peaches, pears and squash. Watched a little football, and put in some apple and cinnamon scented plug-ins.

I love how little Jack swivels his feet around and around all day. I love his weird noises that are unlike other babies that I've heard. I love his fuzz head.

I love Lily's enthusiasm for all animals. Seriously... ALL animals. Her new favorite thing to do that she talks about a lot is going to the pet store, since they have tons of animals there. I feel like a dork just going in, so I end up buying some stupid cat toy for 99 cents. Lately she's been a triceratops, or as she says "ceritops". Today she was naming bugs she loves. She said "Love lady bugs, love butterflies, love spiders," and so on. I didn't believe that she loves spiders, so I said "What? You love spiders?" and she said "Yep!" very enthusiastically in her tiny, high voice. So knowing that she doesn't love crickets, I said "What about crickets, do you love them?". She thought for a minute and said "Ya. Love lizards." I know that what she meant was that she loves lizards and lizards love crickets (we've discussed this a lot) so that means she loves crickets.

She always has loved birds, since before she could talk she pointed them out and learned the sign for bird. We got a little hummingbird feeder which she's very excited about and is always waiting for a hummingbird to show up. We get to make their food and put it out for them, which is fun for her. After that we went to Michaels because I had a coupon. I've never been to Michaels and just strolled around, I've always felt very much like an outsider in that world and felt really awkward, but boy was a wrong, that place is awesome! Most of it I will never appreciate (Barfy Fake Flowers) but there were tons of ideas for projects that Lily and I can do together. The first is this bird feeder. The whole thing including paint was less than $5 and it was great because there were parts that she could do all by herself and she loves to help the little birdies.

The next thing I love is Jared. Jar-Bear, hehe. What I don't love, in fact it's one of my least favorite things, is saying nice things about Jared in front of other people. It makes me all nauseous and nervous. I don't want to look like a big wuss by admitting that I actually like my hubby. Unfortunately I feel like I should write something nice about him because I've been feeling intense pressure by other people's blogs who all say nice things about husbands, and also because it was our 6th anniversary last week. That's right, 6 long years. This is a picture of flowers he gave me. I've also put up a bunch of pictures of our married life. This black and white one is from dating life, 1999. I would have put up more dating pics, but that would require getting out the box of pictures and scanning them, which I was wanting to do, but couldn't find time, which is why this post took forever to put up. Anyway, we met New Years Eve 1998-99, so we've actually been together almost 10 years, 10 YEARS! During that time we've barely been apart for more than a few days at a time, which is alright by me, and I'll tell you why, and I'll try not to get to sick in the process.

Jared and I more than just finish each others sentences, we think the same thoughts. We'll be sitting in silence, not talking, then all of a sudden at the same time say something that is completely random that we both happen to be thinking about, it happens all the time. We almost never fight about money, or raising kids, or any other major issues. We like the same things, have the same aspirations, think the same things are funny, etc.

Jared and I make a great team. We are a well oiled machine in our daily routine, but if something goes out of whack (a kid goes out of whack) then the other will step in without a moments hesitation. If I'm cooking dinner, and Jack needs me, Jared will step in and finish for me without complaining, even if it's a new recipe I'm trying. He cleans up after dinner, does dishes, gives baths, combs hair and is the only one who is allowed to brush Lily's teeth, all without complaining.

Jared and I still love being together. There is no one I'd rather be with on a long road trip. About a month or so ago, I was really mad at Jared for something, I don't remember what (we honestly hardly ever have a real fight), and something funny was on TV. I was so mad at him, but I still had to go get him to watch it. I said to him "Come watch this" in a really grumpy tone, and I laughed at myself inside for being so silly, then after we watched it and laughed together, I couldn't be mad anymore.

Another good story was last week when the Jeep's Air Conditioning broke. Jared was all upset, so I told him to look at an online forum, he didn't want to, so I told him to call our friend Adam who knows Jeeps, but he didn't. The next day, while he was all sweaty and hot, he went to a mechanic, who charged him $75 to diagnose it, and wanted to charge another $400 to fix it. He didn't get it fixed, and finally called Adam, who had personal experience with the same problem, and he then referred him to an online forum, which explained exactly how to do it for less than $20. I had a good time rubbing it in, and still am, as you can tell. Anyway, he came home from work, all hot from sitting in a 100+ degree car all day, and even had a ring of salt from sweat on his shirt. He fixed the A/C most of the way, but needed my help, because he had to reach up under the dash and as we all know, he doesn't bend much, and his meat-paws were also too big to screw something in, and after much frustration, finally asked for my help, which I did. Later that night, after the kids were in bed and he was going to bed, we found out that it wasn't actually fixed. He looked like the saddest little puppy ever, I felt so bad for him, so I told him we could hurry and go do it before he went to bed. We went out and worked on it for awhile, he held the flashlight for me and handed me the tools while I did it. We laughed and talked while we worked and it was one of the funnest times that I've had in awhile. That's a shining example of why I love Jar, because even while we're working, every day in our simple, boring, sometimes hard lives, he helps to make every day funner and happier.

Jared was laughing in his sleep a few nights ago, it was so funny. He just kept laughing and finally I woke him up so he could tell me what it was about, he didn't remember. I regularly have these wacky dreams that for some reason I'm not married to Jared. Sometimes we just never got married, or married other people, or got divorced, and every time I'm so distraught, disappointed, or yelling at myself for making such a huge mistake. I wake up so sad until I remember "Hey, I really AM married to Jared! Yay!" and then I roll over and cuddle him until he gets mad and pushes me off. I'm so grateful for these dreams because they're an occasional reminder of how much I really do appreciate and love him.

OK, it's over, I hope you all didn't barf as much as I did. Hopefully that doesn't have to happen again for a long, long time. Look to the next few posts, I'll make up for this by making fun of him for awhile.